What is Teacher Driven Learning?

After countless iterations of how to best teach online, the internet collective seems to have finally figured out how to deliver learning outcomes to students, completely online.

MOOCs delivered on the promise of scaling great lectures by top-notch teachers. It helped millions get access to top quality content. However, MOOCs failed in delivering outcomes for the majority of the learners - in terms of course completion, actual upskilling, jobs etc. Read more here.

Few on the internet seem to have cracked the model that actually works. We like to call it ‘Teacher Driven Learning’

A deep dive into what works.

Teacher Driven Learning is the type of teaching methodology that puts the teacher at the centrestage in Online Learning.

In stark contrast to MOOCs, TDL or Teacher Driven Learning ensures that the teacher remains continuously engaged in the learning journey of a student. 

How is this done, why is this better?

The emotional journey of learning

True learning is an emotionally challenging journey. Without creation of a conducive learning environment that addresses the emotional and mental challenges a student is bound to face, outcomes will not be achieved. The teacher plays the pivotal role akin to the captain of a ship. Thus, it becomes vital that a teacher remains continuously involved in the teaching process playing the role of a mentor, coach, guru, therapist and subject matter expert simultaneously. In a physical classroom setting, a capable teacher can easily achieve all of the above. However, achieving them online requires a platform that’s designed ground up to specifically address them.

Shared Activity : Tasks

Creation of a shared activity, for eg. hands on tasks, is essential and it’s best if the entire learning experience revolves around this. Aid the task completion process by making rich content that forms the basis for the skills that a student will learn. 

Tasks that require teaming up ensure collaboration among students and facilitate peer learning. It enables open discussions of challenging concepts among peers. Complete the loop by offering personalized feedback from the teachers, after reviewing the student submissions.

Mere relay of information takes a backstage here, putting student-student & student-teacher interactions, learning by doing and personalised feedback at the centre-stage.

Presence & Continuous Engagement

Without live sessions from teachers that explain and expand on course content, student interest levels drop dramatically. The spontaneity and group interactions that live sessions bring in, gives life and a sense of community to the class. It also gives the teacher a great opportunity to get a pulse of the class 

However, we must acknowledge that a teacher’s time is expensive. For every live interaction, enabling at least 10 times as many asynchronous interactions between teacher and student becomes essential.

Beyond Teaching

Beyond getting access to a subject matter expert and bringing in some accountability into the learners, students can also be offered other benefits.

Teachers also bring in their network and connections to aid students to achieve outcomes for their learning. Ensuring domain experts from the network are brought in early on onto the online student community for a Q&A sessions or AMA sessions will be of great help. It also enables the word to get around about your course to a wider community.

At Pupilfirst, we started building technology and processes around all of the above tenets. It took us 4 years, and many iterations through first-hand teaching experience to arrive at its current form.